Rakim Quotes

Feed me hip-hop and I start tremblin'

I've always been a picky eater but I'm not the healthiest eater.

It is what it is but I do me and I think people respect that. They see me out in the hood by myself or with wifey and I don't have no bodyguards.

Do what you do don't let the label tell you to do something else.

Every time someone come out with an album don't change the whole style up but don't do what they are expecting. Surprise them.

Sometimes I can't believe half of the love that I get.

Not follow me but follow the lyrics.

There is still consciousness in hip hop.

Get your money and as long as nobody is stepping on my wad then we're good.

If something comes at me of course I'm gonna handle my business but I'm not the type to provoke the bullshit so I don't really get a lot of that.

Go to the club or go to the block or go hang out and things start coming.

I loved the hood and still love the hood but I had to realize like Ra you a rapper now you're in the public eye.

The physical was never the best part of the body.

Once you start making money you have to put things into perspective.

Subconsciously, Islam took over me so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.

That's another thing yo rappers are scared to bring new styles out. There's so many different ways we can be flowing but everybody chooses to flow the generic way.

I think half of our life is written out for us and things happen the way their supposed to happen.

I love to see when people are real passionate about what they feel and what they say.

I've been writing for so long I got a lot of different ways to write.

You have to learn how to take an allowance.

As far as our physical form, the mind is a great temple. But it has a life span and it dies.

If anybody can make a change it's the rappers.

A lot of reasons I didn't do records with people is because I never wanted their light to reflect on me.

A lot of the things that go on we can avoid some of it.

I always gave my moms and pops the utmost respect. I didn't talk back to my peoples. The way they presented themselves to us, we knew. Don't talk back to moms and pops.

Things happen for a reason.

I always tried to manage my money smart.

I've always been a fan of hip hop and there are cats out there that I admire.

Whenever I sat down to write something it was never anything I took lightly. It was something that I'd want you, somebody in Japan, and somebody [over there to hear it].

Rappers are separated.

I try not to eat too much beef. I try to eat healthy.

Hopefully we get back to the raw essence of hip hop again.

Keep your guns on and don't let anybody tell you how to load your guns or bust ya guns.

I think things are gonna change. I'm gonna take the age limit off of hip hop.

The money from every unit being sold is what I feel every artist should see.

I see my pops everyday and that's what I wanted.

I never sold drugs. A lot of people used to think I was that dude but I never sold a crumb. I used to always be upset with that.

My whole thing is if it wasn't for people like ya'll and people like them I wouldn't be me. I love every minute of it.

Once I get the track I know what to do with it.

I go up in the supermarkets and people always go what are you doing here and I go I'm hungry in a sarcastic but nice way just to let them know yo I'm human too man.

Sometimes I see where I want to take the song and wind up at the end and come back to the beginning. I don't miss nothing and everything is good. Everything I thought of is incorporated in it.

When I write I get to the point where I slow down and I gotta go back into the world and live nahmean.

Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music man. It's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.

I just try to eat as good as possible.

I never went to college. I think about it a lot. I can't watch a game without thinking where I would have been if I had ga head and went to college and pursued my career.

Back then all I cared about was rhyming and making beats. That was my trade, my hobby.

I think it's a combination of my peoples that I grew up under, places that I hung out is what contributed to where I'm at now.

I always had deep respect for my peoples 'cause of the love they gave me and the know how that they showed me through the years.

When you come in the building with your guns don't take them off.

I don't work out too much and it's wild because it bugs me out.